


Live With Your Mistakes

by SilverButterfly111



Category: How to Train Your Dragon (Movies)
Genre: Astrid is a Jerk, Astrid is betrayed, Astrid's angry, Hiccup gives Astrid a reality check, Hiccup is the only sane one, Hiccup might be a little bit insane, Hiccup ran away from Berk, Not a romance, Other, Post-HTTYD 1, Protective Toothless (How to Train Your Dragon), The villagers are jerks, Toothless wants to murder Astrid
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-07-30
Updated: 2019-07-30
Packaged: 2020-07-27 01:56:43
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,991
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20038009
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SilverButterfly111/pseuds/SilverButterfly111
Summary: Astrid hasn't seen Hiccup in three years...The village thinks this plan will work perfectly.....Wrong!!





	Live With Your Mistakes

Astrid screamed.

Two weeks of walking around in paranoia and casting guarded looks over her shoulder. Glaring at anyone who got within the reach of her ax head had done her absolutely no good. Never underestimate the lengths which desperate men are willing to go through to protect themselves. Because Thor forbid they actually _ leave _ this island. She should have known she was in trouble as soon as the council members looked at her like she was a mutton chop and they were starving…

And now? Here she is...the finest warrior of her Dragon Training Academy class tied up and dumped into a secluded cove.

Astrid's rage and indignation came to a peak that forced a scream from her throat.

She would have thought she was worth more than a sacrifice to them. If Stoick had been here none of this would have happened.

The cold gust of wind stirred at her back drove her senses into high alert. The hair on the back of her neck stood on end but she had too much pride to admit the slightless bit of fear. She was already pushing far past the limits of her dignity in this situation as it was without having to acknowledge the fact that she had to roll and squirm in the dirt to face the creature at her back.

It was a fundamental rule she had learned since she learned basic sense of direction. 

Never turn your back on the enemy.

The Night Fury wasn't anything more than a darker shadow among shadows save green eyes that glared at her with the unnerving sense of intelligence that was somewhere in the uncanny valley of human and feral.

It remembered her.

It despised her. She would have known that much even without the way its eyes narrowed and it snarled at her; a sound summoned from the darkest realm of the afterlife. A promise of death.

Astrid tore her eyes away from the glowing green eyes that burned her like acid.

The dragon similarly turned its attention away from their battle of wills to acknowledge the smaller shadow that had just detracted itself from his back. 

"What is it, Bud?"

The voice that accompanied the movement was wary, curious but infuriatingly Astrid couldn't pick out any fear in the question posed.

The dragon growled a reply or seemed to anyway.

In light of the insufficient answer Astrid watched the silhouette of the young man edge closer. Astrid blinked, flinching back from the light that suddenly sprang into existence. Startled to see a somewhat familiar face to further solidify the fact that she knew him. Despite how often she told herself otherwise.

"Hiccup."

"Astrid?" An edge of disbelief slipped past his tone, echoed by the flash in green eyes before he managed to master his own composure. Expression slipping into something dancing the line between calculation and dark amusement.

"Moved on to human sacrifices have they? How barbaric, they must be quite desperate."

Astrid couldn't manage a verbal reply against the rage that spiked through her at his arrogance. 

"I suppose it was only a matter of time before they offered you."

She hated to admit that he was right. It wasn't any sort of secret that Hiccup was attracted to Astrid. She lifted her chin to glare at him.

The Night Fury hisses in response to the hostility but Astrid deliberately ignores the noise. Trying to keep Hiccup in her line of sight as he turns and circles around the creature. A task made near impossible as he chokes out the fire of his blade. 

"Too bad I'm not interested." She can practically hear the shrug of his shoulder in his tone. She certainly can't see it; He's become nearly invisible with combined shadows, the dark armor and the Night Fury to shield him from her gaze which is slowly trying to adjust back to the darkness.

"What's _ that _ supposed to mean?" She hisses.

"Exactly what it sounds like."

The reply makes her want to kick his teeth in and she probably would have done just that if she weren't bond hands and feet in rope. Despite the fact that there's also a Night Fury in the way.

"How dare you!" She doesn't care about trying to keep her voice civil anymore. Her hands struggling to unite knots in the rope around her wrist and only managing to make it tighter.

"How dare you dismiss me, dismiss your family, your tribe, how dare you turn your back on us!"

He has the nerve to _ laugh _ at her. To _ scoff _ and she redoubled her efforts to escape her bonds. He has all the power in this situation and they both know it. He's the one who is armed, unbound and has the unholy offspring of lightning and death itself under his thumb like a trained attack dog.

"I'd hardly say that I turned my back on anyone," Hiccup mused aloud as he paced around her.

She has to level the playing field just a little bit, even if its just to defend herself. She watched him with justified wariness as he steps out of the Night Fury's shadow. Resuming his wide circle. She instinctively stiffened when he's no longer in her peripheral vision. His presence now behind her.

_ Never turn your back on the enemy! _

Her mind screamed at her, but her pride won't let her move around in the dirt anymore. It was struggle enough to sit up and face the Night Fury in the first place. She won't give him the satisfaction of it.

She won't beg for her life either… Which just became a possibility if the sound of metal being pulled from a sheath is any indication. Astrid goes completely still. Bracing for a blow that never comes.

"It's quite hard to turn your back on people who were never looking at you to begin with."

Astrid felt the slightest pang of guilt at that. Not enough to soften the words that come out of her mouth in reply.

"I paid attention to you."

"Only after I started beating you in the Dragon Arena,"

The displacement of air at her back and the shifting of dirt are the only indication that he's now kneeling behind her.

"Then you stalked me," He tugs on the rope at her wrist and she mentally slaps him for it. Jerking out of his hold but managed to grit her teeth against a retort.

"I'd hardly call that the sort of attention anyone would want," 

_ 'You're luck I gave you any at all!' _Astrid fumed in silence, biding her time.

"Still," Hiccup continued. A second displacement of air is all the warning she received before the blade is brought down and there's an audible _ snap _ as the rope unraveled and fell to the ground.

Astrid stayed where she was for a moment. Flexing her fingers to regain blood flow. Trying to process the fact that he's let her go.

There's more movement as he shifted enough to free her legs in a similar manner.

"Don't say I didn't do you any favors."

Astrid lunged at him. Injuried pride and newly freed limbs won't let her do anything else.

"You bastard!" She's not entirely sure how she's grabbed the knife and pinned him to the ground; yet here they are. The tables have finally in her favor. As they should be!

She's stronger. She's the better fighter. He's just a coward who ran away from his responsibilities!

"We wouldn't _ be in _ this situation if it wasn't for you! The village wouldn't be staving, your father wouldn't be so desperate to find the dragons nest, people wouldn't have to _ die _ in dragon raids if you would just-"

Hiccup as far too calm for someone who is being threatened with a knife blade. He smirked at her. Sneered.

"What? Are you pissed that I finally figured out 'what side I'm on' and it's not yours?"

Her own words, spit back in her face! Part of her mind might have picked up on the fact that she's being goaded. That Hiccup was practically daring her to make a move. The problem was that Astrid was a Viking, Astrid was a battle-trained warrior. Hiccup should have known better than to taunt her.

...Astrid should have remembered the Night Fury…

The blonde shieldmaiden yelled in rage and brought the knife blade down almost blindly. Intent to defend the name of herself and her village against insult from the mouth of a traitor.

Training and the instinctual battle-haze drove the blade into the exposed skin of his left hand just below the knuckle of his pinky. She misses the cluster of major arteries on purpose.

She revived no such warning from Toothless.

Hiccup's scream and Toothless' screech of fury bled together until they were nearly indistinguishable from one another. Astrid doesn't even have time to _think_ about turning around before she's smacked in the back and sent flying over Hiccup to tumble head over heels into the dirt. She landed on her back. The wind knocked from her lungs. Worsened still by the weight of paws on her chest. Pressing her spine further into the dirt. Threatening to shatter bones if she so much as blinked wrong.

Fangs are less than an inch from her neck, gleaming white and deadly in the darkness. Astrid can _ feel _ the growl from the creature in her bones; it shakes the very earth down past even the realm of the goddess Hella.

"I didn't think you were that stupid."

Astrid glared daggers as Hiccup as the boy's shadow joined that of his pet dragon. She has two pairs of bright green eyes staring at her and she has resigned herself to the fact that she's going to die here.

Hiccup watched her, gaze unyielding as the beast that has her pinned to the earth.

"I can't help you." Hiccup states flatly. One hand pressed to his chest to lessen the bleeding whilst the other rests on the Night Fury's shoulder. In the space where the wing met the rest of the shoulder blade.

The creature doesn't even turn it's head to snap to warn Hiccup away from such a vulnerable part in its anatomy.

"Can't or won't!" Astrid snapped once she'd regained the oxygen needed to breathe.

Hiccup sighed and rolled his eyes as though she's a particularly annoying child who can't grasp the simplest of concepts.

She grits her teeth and mimics the snarl that hovers a finger length away from her jugular.

"Contrary to what you Berkians now seem to believe, I am not the Dragon Master. I don't have control over the Queen responsible for the dragons that cause the r-" 

"If you won't help us stop them then why do you come back so often?" Astrid's rage isn't quite enough to mask the edge of curiosity.

"It's quite interesting to see the lengths desperate humans go to." The reply is matter-of-fact. Detached. Hiccup lifts his hand from the dragon's scales to wave it in her direction.

"They betrayed you."

"If that's what it would take-" 

"You're as thick-skilled as the rest of them! Why I even considered changing anyone's mind three years ago Gods only know! You're all cowards, cowards who run from anything that's different from what you've been told! I tried to help you and you ran away to tell the village, and _ now _ you want my help; If Stoick is so desperate he can come and beg me himself! Your leaders are cowards who hide behind cowards!"

The outburst leaves Astrid too stunned to realize that Hiccup has slipped onto Toothless' back and the dragon has spread wings. Lifting its feet off her chest to either side of her head.

Claws rip up the earth as the dragon lifted into the air.

"Mercy isn't cowardice; run back to where you belong and live with your mistakes like the rest of us have to." 


End file.
